Groups call for audit on WB-funded projects

The Jakarta Post

Nusa Dua, Bali /
Wed, October 10, 2018 / 08:23 am

Preparation committee members for the 2018 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings converse in front of a sign of the upcoming event at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) in Bali on Oct. 3. (The Jakarta Post/Zul Trio Anggono)

A group of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) has called for a moratorium or a halt in new projects funded with foreign loans and a thorough audit into past and ongoing infrastructure projects.

Indonesia Forum for the Environment (Walhi) campaign head Khalisah Khalid said the World Bank should be held accountable for the disbursement of the foreign loans.

“The practices by the World Bank have led to human right violation, environmental damage and poverty,” Khalisah said in a statement after the People’s Summit on Alternative Development in Sanur, Bali, on Tuesday.

The People’s Summit was held to counter the International Monetary Fund IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, half an hour’s drive from Sanur.

Arimbi Heroepoetri from Debt Watch said the World Bank had operated in Indonesia for nearly five decades and there had been no audit into its performance or into projects and policies it had sponsored.

“Audits is crucial for the Indonesian government to know if loans are proven effective or proven to have damaged the environment and violated human rights,” she added.

The civil society organizations plan to convey their demands, set out in a joint communique to be handed over to representatives of the IMF, World Bank and Indonesian government during the “IMF & World Bank Civil Society Town Hall Meeting" scheduled for Wednesday.